Bridges are important components of the transportation network that should maintain mobility and accessibility even after severe earthquakes. The current design philosophy of earthquake-resistant bridges requires the disastrous seismic energy to be dissipated in hinges that are formed in the piers, while the deck should remain essentially elastic. However, postearthquake restoration of damaged piers is challenging, time-consuming, and causes traffic disruptions. In this context, this paper proposes a novel resilient hinge (RH), that is cost-effective and has minimal damage during earthquakes. The RH is a versatile substructure that dissipates energy through the yielding of easily replaceable steel bars, thus offering rapid restoration times. It is designed to have recentering capabilities because a number of steel bars remain primarily elastic. Numerical models of single-column piers with the proposed hinge were studied and compared with conventional reinforced concrete piers to investigate the efficiency of the design. It was found that the piers with RHs exhibit a significant reduction in residual drifts when compared with the ones of the conventional piers. Application of the proposed philosophy in irregular bridge models enables a more rational and even distribution of ductility requirements along the bridge piers.
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